492 He Wants to Fight
Ping An passed many inspections and finally arrived at his private room.
The small private room in the examination room is much better than the pigeon cage in the provincial examination room. Perhaps all the people here today are Juren? Their status is much higher than that of Xiucai.
Looking around, the first thing he noticed was that the room was much cleaner. Whether it was the table, the floor, the bed, or even the door, everything was clean, which made Ping'an very comfortable.
A small couch that was two feet wide and six feet long, with a quilt on it that weighed no more than three pounds. Although it was not thick, it was obviously new. Together with his single-layer leather cloak, it was more than enough to get him through the nine days.
The temperature in late February is still very low.
There is still a toilet with a lid at one end of the couch, which is a must. Like now, his door has been locked from the outside, and he basically does all his eating, drinking, defecating and urinating in here.
If you want to go to the public toilet, just pull the bell, apply and then stamp the toilet.
No one wants to do this unless it is absolutely necessary. If you do it too much, you will lose points. Who would waste this opportunity that comes once every three years? How many three years do you have in your life?
He will spend the next nine days in this small room of less than two square meters. It is incredible to think about it. To sum it up in one sentence, the imperial examination is not something that human beings can do.
He took out the rag slowly and couldn't help but grin. It turned out to be a pink rag. Awu was really something. Wouldn't it still be dirty after wiping with a beautiful color?
He noticed it when he checked just now and found that he brought several rags.
After wiping the table, he took out the things in the basket and put them on the table one by one.
I heard that ten years ago, people were allowed to bring charcoal to cook food during the exam, but because of a fire incident in which someone lost their life and many were injured, they were no longer allowed to make fires.
No matter how cold it is, it won’t kill you. If you are really weak and can’t stand the cold, you will at most become seriously ill, which will not affect other people.
If you are a weak person, what use will the court have to you even if you become an official?
You will be given food three times a day in the examination center, such as steamed buns, pancakes and the like. They will fill your stomach, but don't think about them being delicious.
Awu brought him some delicious beef jerky and pork slices, but because they were small, no one would dare to break them apart.
The small steamed buns were the size of a finger and were bright yellow. Ping An could tell at a glance that eggs were added to them.
His mother also asked people to prepare a lot of such food, and everyone had a portion. This time he kept the ones for Awu and didn’t take the ones made by his mother. Did he forget his mother after he got married?
Ping An's mouth curled up again.
He prepared the pen, ink, paper and inkstone himself. They were the same set he used in his grandfather's yard and he was used to them.
When he had finished grinding the ink, a bell rang, and soon after, his door was knocked.
Immediately afterwards, a large stack of papers was stuffed in through the small window on the door.
Ping An took them carefully. These were test papers and draft papers.
The first thing to do when you get the test paper is of course to browse it.
This is the three-day test paper.
First are the questions on the meaning of the classics, which are from the Four Books. There are six major questions in total, and each major question has many sub-questions.
Ping An took a quick look and it didn't seem difficult, at least not for him. There weren't many easy things, but there were quite a few confusing ones.
But who is Ping An? He has a very good memory, and there is also Mr. Wang who is very good at guessing questions and likes to give him special treatment.
Next comes arithmetic and poetry.
There are quite a lot of questions and the difficulty is not low. Good, very good.
Ping An was best at arithmetic. He once won the first place in the arithmetic competition of the Imperial College. The more difficult the arithmetic test was, the more he liked it, so he could eliminate a large number of relatively outstanding candidates.
When it comes to poetry and prose, as long as he wants to, as long as he is willing, he can create a masterpiece that will move the examiners.
This might require him to borrow his once favorite collection of 300 Tang poems. Normally, he would try his best not to "borrow" other people's poems, but today was different, as he wanted to compete for the first place in the imperial examination.
If he gets first place in the provincial examination, no matter how you look at it, as long as he performs well in the palace examination, he will definitely be the top scorer.
In the past few decades of the Great Zhou Dynasty, there has never been a person who won the top six places in the imperial examination.
This time he really wanted to fight for it.
The old man is 76 years old. For his sake, he reads books every day and has almost forgotten to eat and sleep.
Mr. Wang's hair has become much thinner because of him, and his notes and questions are piled up more than a foot high.
His master, his teacher, his parents, his biological father, and even Awu, although they didn't say it, he knew that everyone wanted him to be the top scholar.
Next are the laws and policy essays, which are also score-pulling questions. The candidate's literary talent, the examiner's preferences, and the neatness of the writing are all related. Of course, the most important thing is to do the questions well.
…
It took me almost half an hour to quickly look through twenty or thirty test papers.
Ping An's self-confidence also soared. He will try his best to strive for the first place. If that doesn't work, he will try to get into the top ten. If that still doesn't work, he will try to get into the top thirty. He can't go any further.
If this goes on, Mr. Wang will be so angry that he will faint.
Sun family.
Ma saw her daughter coming over alone, "Xin'er, didn't you ask your sister to come over for breakfast?"
Xin Er laughed, "Sister couldn't sleep at night, and in the morning there were dark circles under her eyes. She was having the maid roll eggs for her, and her mouth was covered with blisters. Really, it's not her who's taking the exam for her brother-in-law, why is she so anxious?"
Even the old man laughed.
The eldest lady looked at Sun Sicheng. Wasn't he the same? He tossed and turned all night and couldn't sleep well. He got up early in the morning. She thought that she would not go, so she sent Wan Li and He Jin to see him off. In her opinion, even Ping An himself would not be like these father and daughter.
Sun Sicheng saw his wife looking at him and said, "Why are you looking at me? I'll have someone send some food to Awu. Awen asked for leave today and asked me to go to Hanshan Temple with him and Brother Changsheng. We'll be back in the afternoon."
Ma was eager to try: "Sister-in-law, why don't we go too, burn more incense, and donate more money. May the Bodhisattva bless us to become the top scholar safely."
Xin'er hurriedly shouted, "Take me and my sister with you."
Sun Sicheng said coldly, "Don't go, there are many people going to the temple to burn incense and worship Buddha these two days, especially Xin'er and Awu."
Mrs. Wu nodded and said, "We won't go. There are too many things to do at home. Xin'er, you have to embroider your dowry too. You can't push everything to the embroiderer."
Xin'er blushed and said nothing.
Her marriage has been arranged, but not yet finalized. The man is Zhou Heng, who is much older than her. But Xin'er is very satisfied. Zhou Heng looks so young, has a good temper and personality, and is a steady person.
Besides, he is the only one at home, and no one will care if he lives in his mother's house often.
Not only was she satisfied with this marriage, but the whole family was satisfied. Her parents said that her temper was not as good as her sister's, and she was not as capable as her sister. Some of the pampered mothers-in-law from wealthy families might not like her, and she might not be able to tolerate all the rules.
Of course, she can't compare with her brother-in-law. If she were to say, Zhou Heng would be good enough. If she looks like her brother-in-law, she would still have to be on guard against being peeped at by others even when she is 30 years old.
Originally, her aunt wanted to marry her to Mr. Sun's brother Zhichen. They were about the same age and the two families had a good relationship. But she still chose Zhou Heng. Compared to the playful Sun Zhichen, she still liked steady men.
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